Molly Huddle = Dathan Ritz

Hope you're wrong, but it's a well reasoned argument...

Called it from the beginning. She's not a marathoner. Jorday Hasay is.

Huddle is my favorite female distance runner. She’s fierce. She’s not afraid to attack a race from the start. But I don’t think that she’s a marathoner. She may run 2:21 or 2:22 one day.

Look at all the pre-race comments ahead of London. Sisson and Huddle rarely trained together because they have such different strengths. Sisson responds better to higher mileage and tempos. Huddle responds better to track work.

Huddle may not make the 2020 marathon team. Part of me hopes that she doesn’t and returns to the track with a vengeance.

I would be happy to have either of their careers. Both are legends of the sport.

I had the same thoughts about Huddle from her first marathon, maybe even before that. Nothing wrong with that. It's like complaining that a great 400 runner isn't a great 800 runner. I have the same issues with races over about 1 hour 45 min.

Bad comparison.

Molly has PR'd in every last one of her marathons ( except for the crap show in boston of course). So she just continues to get better and better at her own pace. Her main problem is that I don't think she has completely let the track go. She is still talking about competing this year at 10000m . I think 2015 will forever haunt her, and she is still holding on to it. Had she medaled in a World Championship event, Molly would have made the jump to the marathon a long time ago.

Also, London was a slow race! The men blazed, while the women ran extremely slow. Mary Keitany didn't go out at her blazing pace, and even she ran in the 2:20s, which is unlike her. So the women's race was an usual race, even though Sisson ran 2:23.

Molly can get down to 2:21, but she has to totally let the track go. It's the same thing with Mo Farah. Mo has to completely let the track go mentally.

So Molly is on a higher level than Nathan, and has been way more dominant. And at the age of 34, she has a good three years to perform at a high level in the Marathon. I can see her winning Boston or New York before it is all said and done, and running 2:21 or even faster. ......I'm also glad that she is not rushing things in anyway. She is not freaking out or appear to be devastated in any form or fashion, and that is a good thing.

Hasay ( as long as she is healthy)

Sisson

Huddle

That's my prediction for what our marathon olympic team is going to be.

See this is her main problem:

"Huddle reiterated plans to focus on the track this summer, with her goal to compete at the IAAF World Championships, which will be held Sept. 27 to Oct. 6 in Doha, Qatar. The USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships are a qualifier for the world meet and will be held July 25 to 28 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Huddle, who said previously her focus would likely be the 10,000 on the track this year, added Sunday she is hoping to run a half-marathon in the fall.

Next year leaves the possibility of her third Olympics, with Tokyo hosting the 2020 Summer Games. Huddle previously competed at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she set the still-standing American outdoor record in the women’s 10,000 meters with a sixth-place finish. She has talked about the possibility of trying to make the Olympics in the marathon in 2020.

Huddle is a 2002 graduate of Elmira Notre Dame High School and now lives in Providence, Rhode Island."

She will never have great success until she lets the track go...At 34 she is going to focus on track racing throughout the summer instead of focusing on road events, and preparing for a fall marathon. She is going to run a fall half marathon instead.

That is not good preparation. The olympic marathon trials will be in the spring of 2020, so she needs to run a fall marathon, not a half. and then find a half marathon to run 2 months out before the trials.

I thought this thread was going to talk about her being a drug cheat, like Ritz. Good thing it wasn't.

Evidence ?

Ritz was 9th (top American) in the Olympic marathon and is the 4th fastest American ever over the marathon distance. I think that Molly would be happy to match those accomplishments in the marathon.

That 10,000 she ran at Rio will cement her status. As someone else said she's fearless, going out in 14:55! Take out the druggies and maybe she's a medalist.

Maybe she is just doing the marathon because of the amount of money she makes off of it. Really likes track better. But the marathon on lucrative - especially as she gets closer to retirement. Appearance fees alone have to be a decent profit. It’s not all just about running

Running a fall marathon is not really ideal when the Trials are in February. A lot of top marathoners will forgo a fall marathon with the timing of the Trials. Running a half after the 10k at Worlds makes sense but I agree with you that she needs to go all-in with the marathon. Her time is running out. The other part I think she needs to figure out is training at altitude. She has done it in the past but the last year or two she has been winter training/marathon prepping in Phoenix and not Flagstaff.

Bakla wrote:

Maybe she is just doing the marathon because of the amount of money she makes off of it. Really likes track better. But the marathon on lucrative - especially as she gets closer to retirement. Appearance fees alone have to be a decent profit. It’s not all just about running

This.

A running career ends but interest on your winnings keeps compounding

There is no value in legendary status on Letsrun., See where it got Pre

She's significantly better than Ritz. She's got American records and higher finishes in olympics and world championship races, and actually finishes marathons that she intends to run. Ritz hasn't done anything in sooo long, Molly is still very consistent, low to mid 2:20's isn't probably what she wants, but it's still very solid and her running 2:20 or 2:21 wouldn't be a shocker at all.

A classic performance wrote:

That 10,000 she ran at Rio will cement her status. As someone else said she's fearless, going out in 14:55! Take out the druggies and maybe she's a medalist.

exactly, but for basically being lapped by dopers, this was a Billy Mills performance. Legendary

This feels like an overreaction. Huddle took one crack at a fast marathon at London & ran 2:26. It's too bad the US majors aren't Berlin & London. Huddle put in solid placed efforts in NYC & ran Boston in a garbage year. She'll put a good marathon together. This was her 4th? And she has gotten a touch faster taking out Boston.

It may be true that her sweet spot is 10k-half marathon but I think she's definitely a threat to make the marathon team and can definitely run low-2:20s when all is said & done. Be cool to see her take another crack at lowering the AR in the half.

No sure I quite agree with some of the parts of your post - London had some exceptional times this year, and if Molly could have gone with Emily, I'm sure she would have. Running 2:26 on an ideal day (with great times by both the men and women) is not what she wanted to run I'm sure.

I don't necessarily think that Molly's career is "on a higher level" than Dathan. Ritz is the 4th fastest American marathoner of all time, has a 12:56 5K, world half marathon medal and world jr cross medal. Molly's American records speak for themselves, but the two of them are in rare, rare atmosphere when it comes to discussing American elites. But Molly is already 34 with the interrupted Olympic marathon cycle this fall and next year.

When Hasay went to Chicago to run fast, she hit a 2:21, when Cragg went to Tokyo to run fast, she hit a 2:21, although she was such a distant third that the TV broadcast barely caught her. Not only has Molly not come close to hitting a time in that range, but she will have a lot less chances to "get it right" on that magic day.

I do think that you're quite right about not letting the track go however. I have no doubt that she and her coach are going back and looking at London and going, "well, that didn't work. time to start tweaking things, and quickly." but trying to prepare for the 10,000 and then a half as a focus as opposed to training through those with the trials in mind... slightly different.

For what its' worth, if healthy, I think Cragg and Hasay are the best bets, with Sisson/Desi battling it for a third, with a pack of three behind them like Thweatt, Taylor & Hall (on her best day). That hilly course may change things as the speed merchants may fall apart.

You had the best post I’ve seen in a long time and then you blew it in the last line when you said that Desi was going to be competing for the third spot. Come on.

Even Desi knows that is ridiculous. She is not even planning to show up. Already signed a deal for Boston 2020. Just ask Josh.